On a case of acute optic neuritis associated with acute myelitis / by Seymour J. Sharkey and J. B. Lawford.

  • Sharkey, Seymour J.
Date:
[1884]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a case of acute optic neuritis associated with acute myelitis / by Seymour J. Sharkey and J. B. Lawford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    foramen tliickening of the sheaths, especially of the inner, was observed. In the sheath-space there was a consi- derable amount of recent inflammatory material, as there was also in the small vessels. The trabeculae in general were thickened, tbough they appeared more so in some places than in others. They enclosed many stained nuclei. The latter were also present in largely increased numbers throughout the bundles of nerve-fibres. Alongside the trabeculse, between them and the nerve-fibres, were spaces containing a very faintly granular material wbich did not stain. These, which were probably lymph-spaces, were of greater width than is usually observed. In transverse sections close to the globe were changes similar to those just described. The increase of stained nuclei appeared to be greater in the peripheral than in the central parts of the nerve. Bight disc and retina.—The sheath-space close to the disc was very slightly distended. Swelling, considerable in degree, involved the disc and the nerve-fibre layer for some distance towards the periphery. The stained nuclei were very numerous in the disc and in the two inner layers of the retina. Inflammatory changes were present in the vessels, and a large hemorrhage was seen in the retina close to the disc, which involved all its structures except the nerve-fibre layer. In short, microscopical examination proved that there was intense inflammation of the optic discs, nerves, and chiasma, and that it involved, though less severely, the optic tracts. The meninges about the chiasma and on the adjacent under surface of the frontal lobes presented slight evidences of inflammation. The interest of the case just related lies in the association of an acute optic neuritis with acute inflam- mation of the spinal cord. Growers in his work on ' Medical Ophthalmoscopy' refers to five cases recorded by Clifford Allbutt, Seguin, Noyes, Steffen, and Erb, in which spinal symptoms, apparently due to myelitis, were